We didn't used to hate Wal-Mart

Mr. Lewis: I enjoyed reading your column about the
Littleton Wal-Mart fight. You have captured the
battle well. Click here to see column.

Two years ago, I led a similar battle in Westminster
where we gathered over 8,000 signatures on
each of two petitions to attempt to stop a Wal-Mart in
my neighborhood. Like the Littleton group, our city
never heard the residents. We were a mixture of men,
women, young, old, Dems and Republicans alike. Some
hated Wal-Mart. Some did not. We all do now.

Like Littleton, the Westminster city council was lured with
big promises of “revitalization” and sales tax
revenue. To our city council and city manager, this
was like Heroin and they could not get enough. The
original proformas on the project were at $3.5
million per year in sales tax. By the time of the
hearing, they were down near $2 million. Today, we
are looking at $1.5 million.

All of the businesses in the existing center were obliterated.
They included a 28-year Chinese restaurant honored previously
by the city for 25-years of business, a 17-year popular
family breakfast restaurant, a prominent Thai
restaurant and about a dozen others. Not one was able
to relocate within the city of Westminster and most
have become financially decimated, as a result.

Our city manager lied to us about city “incentives” not
existing but a $5 million TIF was later discovered
and approved for Wal-Mart. This week, our city
council is looking at $7 million in bonds for road
improvements to accommodate the behemoth.

Three Albertson’s recently closed because of a Wal-Mart just
12,000 feet down the road from the one coming to my
neighborhood which was the beneficiary of a $3.4
million city subsidy. Many other businesses have also
closed. Our area used to bring in over $1.5 million
in sales tax revenue thanks to the scores of small,
independent businesses. We have lost $750,000 in
revenues from the Albertson’s alone (all three were
Westminster). With the other closures and
demolitions, that amount is likely near $1.5 million
(although, exact numbers are never available because
the city considers the information “proprietary”).

After the vote (city council reversed the language to
get their desired result), over 130 homes in the area
went on the market. Most did not sell and of the ones
that did, I know of only one that got a full priced
offer. Wal-Mart has come in, now, with major changes
to their project including moving a gas station,
realigning all of the entrances, reducing the number
of trees by over 100, reducing parking and eliminating
their lube shop (the only plus). They tried to slip
it under the radar but we found the plans and all of a
sudden, they are backing off of most of the changes
for fear of having to go through hearings again. So,
within 90 days this thing is supposed to get permitted
to begin construction.

Yet, what did we gain? We lost dozens of businesses,
the community remains bitterly divided, we will need
6 signalized intersections in 8 blocks to deal with the traffic,
people have moved or are trying to move and our city
is spending at least $12 million to bring in less
sales tax than we received before this ill-contrived
plan was ever hatched.

My city will never recover but our council thinks they
did a really good job on behalf of the citizens because
Wal-Mart is going to build a tree-topped mound of dirt
a “berm”) to separate the behemoth from the residents
just 50 feet from the back door. I truly hope that Littleton
has a better result than my Westminster neighborhood.

However, as long as this corporation continues their
plan of domination and weak-minded municipal
governments remain fearful of losing precious sales
tax revenue (or at least the perception of a sales tax
revenue), these battles will continue nationwide
without end and with people fighting one of the
world’s largest corporations with their own cities and
tax revenues being used against them while those of us
simply looking for better development are labeled
“Wal-Mart haters” as part of a PR strategy.

In my community, most of us will never remove our “Wal-Mart
is a Bad Neighbor” signs and with good reason! Thank
you for your column and for continuing to shed
important insight into a hot community topic.

I HATE Walmart and will never shop there. But I am in the minority. Most people aren’t smart enough or principled enough do the same. They just complain, which is why Walmart is so successful.

There is a term for protesters at Walmart construction sites:

“Future Walmart shoppers!”

karynn

Right on! I like that – “Future Wal-Mart Shoppers”!

I will shop there for necessities as needed, but am careful what I go for.

Richard Mayo

Mr. Lewis, I read the Dino Valente response to your Littleton Wal-Mart article and it has so many lies, distortions and half truths, itâ€™s difficult to know just where to begin.

Two years ago I, like Dino, was involved in the south Westminster Wal-Mart issue. In fact, I led a group that supported the revitalization of that blighted site. I am president of the HOA that is located adjacent to that rundown property, so as an adjacent resident I have a real vested interest. But unlike Dino, my interest was in upgrading our community and not in protecting my family business that could lose market share to Wal-Mart.

Dino speaks about the old Shoenberg shopping center as if it were the â€œJewel of Westminsterâ€?. The fact is that shopping center was a decades old blight on our community and the current owner ( Jordan Perlmutter) made it clear he would not be doing any improvements to and wanted to sell it, if he could find a buyer. Picture in your mind a dilapidated shopping center with plywood over several windows, multiple vacancies, graffiti, an abandoned gas station, an abandoned restaurant pad and a troublesome local bar, and youâ€™ll have a picture of what we local residents had to live with.

In his letter to you, Dino stated that Westminster never heard the residents. Thatâ€™s absurd. They heard the residents loud and clear and they did their job and listened to every one of them, not just the organized vocal ones. What Dino fails to understand is that his vocal union led group did not represent Westminster residents like he wants people to believe. Westminster has somewhere around 110,000 residents. Probably 40,000-50,000 registered voters. Yes, the anti Wal-Mart group was able to gather 8,000 signatures by using paid canvassers going door to door, standing in front of competing stores and by members leaving petitions on counters in competing stores, but that still does not represent the majority. We eventually had an election where every resident could actually vote and the residents agreed with the City Councilâ€™s decision. Granted it was close, but close or not, the majority finally spoke.

Dino also blames a Wal-Mart that isnâ€™t even build yet for putting 3 Albertsons stores out of business. He must not realize that your readers are a subset of people who read the newspapers and have undoubtedly read that Albertsons actually closed 8 stores during that same announcement, they also announced several other closures prior to that and there is speculation that they will be leaving the Colorado market altogether because they are #4 in the market behind King Soopers, Safeway and Wal-Mart. He also failed to mention that King Soopers built stores within a mile on both sides of the 72nd Ave Albertsons and Safeway built a store a mile to the east. He acts like those 3 busy stores had a negligible impact on the 72nd Ave Albertsons, yet he believes that an un-built store caused its declining revenue over the past several years.

Then Dino ridiculed a landscaped berm that will be used to screen the back of the Wal-Mart store from view. Iâ€™d be glad to show you some pictures of the nearby residentsâ€™ previous view. Itâ€™s no surprise that he failed to mention what the nearby competing stores had used to screen the back of their stores from neighboring views. Alberstons store used a 6 foot cedar fence and the nearby King Soopers used a short painted cinder block wall, yet each of those stores is less than Â½ the distance to the adjacent residents than the 72nd Ave Wal-Mart will be.

The claim made about 130 homes immediately going on the market due to Wal-Mart is ridiculous. We even engaged a licensed Realtor and a licensed real estate appraiser to do some research. Their finding was there was no spike in homes going on the market in this area compared to other areas. The fact is that, nationally, homes â€œfor saleâ€? are testing record levels. Donâ€™t let Dino convince you that the 72nd Ave Wal-Mart triggered a national real estate crisis. In fact, Village Homes will be building homes directly across from the Wal-Mart site that will have price tags above this areaâ€™s average home price. If Wal-Mart was such a drag on home values and home sales, why would Village Homes be so anxious to build across the street from one?

He speaks about how these new signalized intersections are being forced upon us residents to deal with traffic. We residents have been asking for several of these lights for years! Dino will tell you that we are being forced to live behind a masonry wall. But what he wont tell you is that is the same masonry wall that we local residents have been begging for for over a decade. In fact, his co-leader in his anti Wal-Mart group, Mark Kaiser, spent the last decade fighting for that very same masonry wall, but now acts like itâ€™s a bad thing since Wal-Mart shoppers will be paying for it rather that the Colorado Dept of Transportation general fund.

Dino talks about taxpayer handouts, but heâ€™s giving yet another total misrepresentation. The sales taxes that will be used to pay for the demolition and infrastructure incentives will come from incremental tax dollars that the Wal-Mart site will generate. Since some of the tax increase will come from sales shifting from other areas, only a portion of it will be applied to pay back the upfront costs. So, in actuality, itâ€™s the Wal-Mart shoppers who will be paying for the infrastructure improvements and not the general tax payer as Dino wants you to believe. If someone doesnâ€™t want any of their tax dollars to go toward these improvements, then they simply avoid shopping at that site. Itâ€™s truly that simple.

Donâ€™t for a minute believe that these anti Wal-Mart battles have anything to do with the local communities. Itâ€™s not a coincidence that Dave Minshall just happens to be involved in each of these so-called â€œgrassrootsâ€? groups. Heâ€™s a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) paid union strategist/organizer. If there is a proposed Wal-Mart, youâ€™ll find the UFCW organizing residents and looking for ways to play on the public emotion to block the store. Donâ€™t kid yourself. Their ultimate goal has nothing to do with protecting local communities. Their ultimate goal is to represent (e.g. collect union dues) from over a million Wal-Mart employees. If the employees in the proposed Wal-Mart were going to be UFCW dues paying union members, you wouldnâ€™t see Dave there trying to â€œsave the communityâ€?.

As citizens, our focus must be on our local communities and not national politics. Once a local UFCW vs. Wal-Mart battle is over, the UCFW leaders just move on and oppose the next Wal-Mart in the next town. If the UFCW was successful at blocking the Wal-Mart at 72nd Ave, they would have claimed â€œvictoryâ€? and Wal-Mart would have just picked a different location, but us local residents would have been the real losers for years to come. I wasnâ€™t willing to that happen to our local community and itâ€™s a crying shame that Dino Valente was.

Richard Mayo

djw1

Most people just don’t get it. You can save money at Wal-Mart but what you save you pay two-fold in higher taxes that go to food stamps and medical for Wal-Mart employees. For every two jobs Wal-Mart creates, three others lose there job by stores closing in the area. Wake up people!

Rossputin

Most people who complain about WalMart are either union members (or union lackeys) or simply naive liberals.

WalMart employs more people than the US military. When a WalMart opens there are always far more job applicants than positions available. Those people aren’t forced at gunpoint to apply to work at WalMart. They do it because they believe it’s in their best interest.

WalMart is a serious force for low prices in America, and the money which we save by shopping at WalMart or by shopping at other stores that have to compete with WalMart is money that we can put toward other important things in our lives, such as health care, education, or simply a vacation.

The anti-WalMart movement in this country is nothing more than a combination of unions and Democrat party activists working hand in hand to attack a company which dares succeed while refusing to cave in to typical union extortion.

WalMart is a good neighbor and a great creation of American free markets.

H.Craig Bradley

Look, the Feds often go light on white collar crimes when done in an office. (Sympathy for fellow office workers?)The penalties for white collar crimes is not severe, no hard time. So, even IF Joe Nacchio is convicted of fraud and insider trading, he probably will only face 5-10 months in prison(the minimum sentence, according to Federal Guidelines).

Fact is, this is not bank robbery. If it was, he would definitely do 10 years in Federal prison, and it would not be just “minimum security” as was the case when Martha Steward committed “insider trading”, and then lied about it (Martha only did five months in a women’s correctional facility).

Joe Nacchio can expect a light sentence. He is not going to face prison gangs in the recreation area. No “chain gang” or hard labor either. It is unlikely the Feds can figure out what happened, and when they do, it is still easy time for white collar criminals, even if they are convicted. (often many,many years after the crime occurred).

Richard Mayo

djw1,

Look at most stores in your your local shopping mall, look at Target, BigK (Kmart), Ace Hardware, restaurants, Big Lots, etc. You’ll find that their wages and benefits are likely lower than what Wal-Mart pays.

To point at Wal-Mart as the cause for welfare and the heathcare crisis is pretty absurd. Next thing you know, Al Gore will be blaming them for Global Warming.

JP

Under no circumstances was WalMart responsible for an Asian restaurant closing. Just a silly claim. And one WalMart does not force THREE Albertson’s to close. Albertson’s are closing all over the country because they are a terrible store.

And lastly, no money was lost by an Albertson’s closing. People just switched to buy their groceries elsewhere. And they didn’t all go to one WalMart.

Blaiming WalMart is easy. Actually knowing what you’re talking about seems very difficult.

Dino Valente

I had no idea what a maelstorm my response to Mr. Lewis’ article caused. I’m not surprised, however, to find Mr. Mayo behind the maelstorm or his unending personal attacks against me. The record, however, must be set straight:

1) I have always been invested in the community and have always worked to promote a better community. My stance was never about my family’s small business of 54 years — and the longest in the city. My stance was concerning the net impact on the business and residential community as a whole. In my opinion, this development will be a huge negative net impact on the community.
2) Jordon Perlmutter was part of the ownership of the Shoenberg Center from day one. That the center was in such hideous decline, was due to Mr. Perlmutter and his partners in the venture choosing not to invest in the upkeep of their property. Of course, as I’ve learned, if a city is willing to work with a developer to “blight” his property and reward the property owner with a financial windfall, well, I guess I wouldn’t reinvest in my property, either.
3) As the proponent of the successful petition drive, I will tell you that the law was followed by my group to a T. I’m proud of our over 100 volunteers who gathered over 7,000 of those signatures with amazing hard work and dedication by going door-to-door throughout the city. Yes, we engaged some paid persons for insurance. Ultimately, we had enough signatures on our own. Regardless, the United States Supreme Court has long ago ruled that not only are paid circulators permissible, they are an important constitutional check to protected free speech.
4) I’m grateful for the help and the support provided to my community by UFCW Local 7, SEIU, the Colorado AFL-CIO, the Denver Area Labor Federation and the other unions who represent over 2,500 union households in Westminster of all trades and varieties. Their support helped to equalize the $150,000 Wal-Mart and their paid PR team, had to run the “Revitalize” campaign of which Mr. Mayo emerged as their “local” front man. I’m also proud to call Dave Minshall my friend and my colleague.
5) While I did not commission a real estate analysis of the community, my number is based upon visual inspections of the homes on the market in the neighborhoods surrounding the site. One neighborhood alone had approximately 1/2 of those homes for sale.
6) I spoke with employees and store managers of all three now closed Albertson’s in Westminster. Our city council has been sounding their death knoll for over two years (but happy to take their tax revenues). The final blow to all three stores was not the internal troubles of Albertson’s but the inability to compete against a Wal-Mart Supercenter at 94th and Sheridan which received a $3.4 million city subsidy to “upgrade” to a supercenter. The numbers were clear. In a fair fight, store-to-store, anyone can compete. However, when the playing field is tilted by a huge city subsidy, nobody can compete. The subsidies must cease.
6) TIF financing is ugly for any community. In fact, according to the city’s most recent information, sales tax revenues in the city are slightly up except for the urban renewal areas where TIF financing is being used. The revenues are way down, proving the point that the subsidies don’t help the community as a whole. Regardless, Mr. Mayo is incorrect to assert that only Wal-Mart shoppers will pay. We all pay. By freezing property tax revenues at an artifically “blighted” rate for 20 years, the increment causes school districts and other districts dependent upon property tax to suffer. However, since our state laws mandate school funding be maintained at a certain level, that means that the state must backfill the increment. Of course the cities don’t care. However, it means less money for prisons, less money for health care, less money for a multitude of other programs. Then, a fix such as Ref. C becomes necessary. TIF benefits only the developer by keeping his costs artifically low. In fact, the TIF at the Lark Ridge Shopping Center in Thorton required $28 million in legislative backfill to District 12 schools. That same number is expected at the Westminster Orchard Marketplace when it is fully running. Those figures are from former Adams County Treasurer John LeFebvre.
7) 8,000 linear feet of walls, 6 signalized intersections and a berm. What a way to build an open, cohesive community. Yes, a fix on Sheridan (state highway) is necessary to stop cars from crashing through the back fences of adjacent properties. When Sheridan was expanded to 4 lanes, the residents were left hung out to dry. This development is no way to remedy that problem.
8) Villlage Homes. They received approximately $600,000 in city subsidies to sell their parcel of land zoned for 8 units per acre to Wal-Mart to make the assemblage of land complete in exchange for concessions to build on the north side of 72nd where the zoning was more favorable without public hearings.

I choose to argue issues with facts unlike Mr. Mayo who chooses to attack me. I thank Mr.
Lewis for posting my thoughts on his blog and the Devner Post for providing this community asset. Dino Valente

Russell Weisfield

Some of the responses to Mr. Valente’s letter are based upon a lack of knowledge of the whole situation. For example, the Thai restaurant was directly forced out by Wal-Mart. Despite the fact that the owner had a lease for ten years, her lease was assumed by Wal-Mart when they bought the property from Jordan Perlmutter and they promptly ended the lease.

The closing of Albertson’s has also hurt the businesses anchored by the store. Yes people switched to buying elsewhere and that elsewhere was probably not in Westminster.

The local bar was not troublesome for most people’s point of view. Graffitti has increased since the hearings.

Yes there has been a call for lights for years and Wal-Mart promised to help with that but the placement has since changed and will cause greater traffic problems than previously announced.

The Wal-Mart group gathered the majority of their signatures from volunteers and only used paid canvasers at the end of an unusally short gathering period (21 days which is far less than most timeframes).

The incremental tax Mr. Mayo points to is exactly the problem. As taxes rise the TIF protects those dollars at pre tax numbers meaning a greater debt is taken by the community. Why do you think their were recent votes about bonds and tax issues?

This issue is not about unions. It is about government subsidizing businesses. It is about choosing the community in which citizens want to live.

David Buck

Your column “Up a creek–but with a battle” stirred me. I moved with my family to South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton in 1949, just about a third of mile north of the proposed Super Wal-Mart. Our family still owns Meadowood Village, the 99 unit mobile home park bordering the Wal-Mart site on the north. Unlike some of our neighbors in Wolhurst Landing, we support the Wal-Mart development. We think it will be good for Littleton and for us.
The opposition’s arguments boil down to stubborn resistance to change. In the sixty years I have been around Littleton there has been constant change along the Platte river. Before channeling by the Army Corps of Engineers, the river seemed to change course yearly. In high school my brother and I harvested peonies from huge fields where the Wolhurst Landing opponents now live. We hunted peasant, ducks, and geese in the fall; we caught fish and crawdads in the river. We rode our horses, kept cattle and chickens. All that is gone, but I have always felt those changes brought jobs and prosperity to Littleton.
Some kind of development along South Santa Fe in Littleton is inevitable. We gave bottom land to help build South Platte Park. Our little family farm is now the Denver Seminary. Look north to Englewood, between Hampden and Oxford where trashy motels and shops are being torn down for a Super K-Mart and other big box style development. Littleton itself has a new Lowe’s where a deserted lumber yard stood. Look south to Aspen Grove and beyond Mineral where an even larger shopping center will replace open fields. Change is all around the proposed Wal-Mart site and it has brought jobs and prosperity to Littleton.
Should Littleton stop development because a few Wolhurst Landing residents are going to lose their view across a wire fence into an open field? We don’t think so. Over the past dozen years I have talked with developers who have wanted to build on proposed Wal-Mart site. At their best, they have pitched townhouses, or slab-sided warehouses. In comparison, Wal-Mart looks to be a good neighbor; a big national company willing to spend the money needed to handle the environmental challenges of the site and operate a business that will help the Littleton tax base.
We need to think beyond the view over the backyard fence.
David D. Buck

Richard Mayo

Dino,

1) That argument is bogus and you know it. The owner of the Albertsons shopping center directly adjacent to the Wal-Mart location actually supported the new Wal-Mart because they knew it would INCREASE the viability of their retail tenants.
2) Finally something we partially agree on. I agree that Jordan Perlmutter shouldnâ€™t have let that property deteriorate like he did. Fortunately we had an opportunity to correct the situation. I know you wanted to leave it â€œas-isâ€?, but our community deserves better.
3) Iâ€™m not knocking your petition. Iâ€™m simply stating that it only represented a slight fraction of the Westminster residents and not the overall citizen opinion as you suggest. Last I knew a vocal minority doesnâ€™t make the rules.
4) Iâ€™m certain you are grateful for the help of the UFCW. So are all of the other anti Wal-Mart front groups. As far as me being their â€œlocal front manâ€?, I was involved in upgrading our community long before I ever met anyone at Wal-Mart.
5) Unfortunately, you can find that in most neighborhoods. In case you havenâ€™t noticed, there is a national real estate crisis going on. Just today it was announced that new home sales fell another 7% nation wide. I suppose you believe that 72nd and Sheridan Wal-Mart is affecting the entire country? Itâ€™s funny because the home industry experts believe itâ€™s due to the record high foreclosure rates triggered by all of the sub-prime lending and ARMs making big adjustments. How much more crap can you blame on Wal-Mart?
6) Thatâ€™s not true either. Are you going to stand there and tell me that King Soopers, Safeway and Albertsons donâ€™t get similar incentives under similar circumstances? Wasnâ€™t there an incentive involved at the Safeway at 72nd and Federal? Iâ€™ll bet you $10 that Dave Minshall wasnâ€™t over there protesting! You probably were since it was another threat to your market share.
7) TIF is not as ugly as you want people to believe. Iâ€™ll concede that itâ€™s frozen at a low rate, but that rate is what the property currently producing and thatâ€™s all it will likely produce for the next 20 years unless that site is revitalized. Do you think that center was growing? I know you hate Wal-Mart enough to condemn us local residents to that eyesore for another 20 years, but I donâ€™t. My support is for this community and not some personal agenda.
8) The walls and lights are what the local community has been asking for but there hasnâ€™t been funding to provide it. They are NOT being forced upon us. But you knew that and are just playing dumb. Are you going to stand there and claim that your own buddy and city councilman Mark Kaiser hasnâ€™t spent the last 10+ years trying to get that same masonry wall installed on Sheridan behind HIS home? Are you going to stand there and claim that people on 72nd Ave havenâ€™t been asking for the same wall to be built on 72nd, long before Wal-Mart was in the picture? Why donâ€™t you ask the people on 72nd Ave between Sheridan and Wadsworth if they would be willing to take their masonry wall down? As far as the cars crashing through the fence, thatâ€™s resolved now that the drunks wonâ€™t be leaving that bar and driving toward the fence.
9) What does this have to do with Village Homes building new homes directly adjacent to a Wal-Mart where you believe people will not buy homes?
Hereâ€™s one for you. Care to make a wager on how many people will be appling for those Wal-Mart jobs that supposedly are so bad that nobody wants them?

Itâ€™s time to get over your bitterness and start supporting the community.

Dino Valente

I refuse to get into a battle of wits with Mr. Mayo. If he wants to engage in such a dialogue, he certainly has my contact information.

My record of community involvement and support is long and proud and goes back to when my grandparents purchased a ranch back in 1946 in the “country” just north of Denver. Though 6 members of the current city council do not agree with me on the redevelopment issue, all 7 will agree with me that I have been heavily involved in the community since I was a teenager.

I do not dispute that some, including now Councilman Kaiser want some sort of a wall for protection. I would too, if I’d had 3 drunk drivers crash through my back fence. I doubt the veracity of the statement that the drunk drivers in question came from the former Jammin’ Joe’s bar and it’s predecessors. I do know that Joe ran a clean establishment and he, too, was reared in Westminster and has now had to build a new buisiness elsewhere. Regardless, about 50% of the community do not want walls and many in Arvada do not like their walls because the noise has actually increased since sound travels in a sine wave pattern and bounces over the walls.

Mr. Mayo seems fond of pigeonholing any and every person who opposes a development with a Wal-Mart as “anti-Wal-Mart.” Many of the people who spoke in opposition to the Westminster development were, in fact, persons who were frequent shoppers at Wal-Mart and who very much liked their stores. I speak in the past tense because after what occurred, they will no longer shop at Wal-Mart. They simply didn’t want such a massive development in their neighborhood (remember 1/2 of that property had to be rezoned for the development) be it Wal-Mart, Target, Costco or Kohl’s. However, Wal-Mart and pro-Wal-Mart persons such as yourself ultimately succeed by making the battle all about Wal-Mart. I guess it works. However, the loyalty will someday wane.

I’m sure there will be many persons in line for jobs at that store. There’s nothing left in the community (250 jobs lost at Albertson’s) and last fall’s Constitutional Amendment changing the state’s minimum wage will provide those people with better paying jobs.

I supported the rebuilding of the Westminster Plaza which now houses Safeway. I did not support the $5million in city subsidies to entice Safeway as an anchor after King Sooper’s left. I know of no other incentive for any grocer in the city except Wal-Mart ($3.4 million at 92nd and $5 million at 72nd). I do not support TIF financing as I believe it to be far, far uglier than I have represented. It is dangerous and hurts communities.

Contrary to Mr. Mayo’s statements, my agenda is not personal. My stance was never about my particular business. I worried about all of the businesses in the community. My grandfather put Safeway out of business in Westminster in the 1960s from a much smaller store. I know how to fight a grocery war and win. That is not the issue. I worry about all of our businesses. Nobody can compete against the huge city subsidies. Just watch. Albertson’s couldn’t, the dollar stores can’t, gas stations can’t, restaurants can’t, bars can’t, hair salons can’t and the list goes on. Any businessman will tell you the same. When the playing field is not level, you can’t compete. Ask the owners of Buffalo Wild Wings in Arvada. When Arvada passed a no-smoking ordinance and Westminster did not, BWW lost a large chunk of their customers to Westminster bars where smoking was still allowed. When the state law leveled the playing field, the customers returned. If Westminster is so fond of TIF financing, then Westminster should blight the entire city and give the same deal to everybody. That’s the only way to keep the field level. I remain proud of the stance I took, proud of the battle fought and people such as Mr. Mayo can pigeonhole me as “anti-Wal-Mart” and “anti-community” because I chose to stand for what I believe is right. If Mr. Mayo and his ilk choose to continue to belittle me for my differing opinions, so be it. Like the great jurist Thurgood Marshall, I will continue to stand for what I believe and rejoice in the victories and never give up hope when speaking for the minority (even when I do represent at least 47%!). Dino Valente

jl

I hate the mexican music at wal-mart. I don’t shop there.

Get Real

To #14 Jl-
What a stupid comment… if you hate the Mexican music @ Walmart get over it, go somewhere else! That is not the only type of music they play.

RedFox

I don’t understand why the Wal-Mart in Westminster needed the $5.0 million dollars in corporate welfare. Did Westminster hand out that kind of giveaway to any of Wal-Mart’s competitors? Of course not. Did the taxpayers receive any benefit from this multi-million dollar giveaway? Obviously not. The pro-Wal-Mart crowd fails to answer this point — they claim that Wal-Mart puts its competitors out of business due to fair capitalism. This is obviously not true.

I’m not against Wal-Mart in particular, but we need to ban the practice of giving away tax money to ANY retail store. It’s just not a good use of scarce taxpayer resource to lavish corporate welfare on Fortune 500 companies.